Can you quibble with one or two ranking spots, yes, but is this list pretty much as accurate as you can get if you rank the top SEC programs?

Yep.

Arkansas fans, inevitably, are furious when you point out that they have the 9th best program in the SEC.

But the evidence is on my side.

Your team has been in the conference for twenty years and has yet to win an SEC title. Every other team ranked above you but South Carolina and A&M have won multiple SEC titles during that 20 year span. (Texas A&M hasn't been in the SEC during this period so it would have been pretty hard for it to win a title. But I'm on the record as saying that the move to the SEC will work wonders for A&M football.)

That's why Arkansas's hire of Bobby Petrino was such a big deal for the program.

No matter who you are you have to acknowledge that Arkansas had the second best head coach in the SEC entering the 2012 season. (Lord Saban is clearly number one).

So what will Arkansas do now that it has to replace Petrino outside of an ideal hiring window?

Will it be able to get a big name coach to jump post-spring practice and take over a program just a few months before fall practice? Or will it sit with an interim for a year and wait to see what coaches are available in the offseason?

Given that Petrino was making $3.6 million a year and there will be no buyout, Arkansas has the ability to pay big money to a top coach. I know Long has been noncommital on his desire to hire now, but I think it will be easier to attract a top coach now given that the Razorbacks return a top ten caliber team and there's presently no competition for coaching hires.

Who knows what top jobs might come open in 2012?

With all that in mind here are my top ten candidates to replace Bobby Petrino.

There have already been reports that Long has contacted McGee, Petrino's former offensive coordinator, about the job. Long shot down those reports with a Tweet last night stating that he hadn't contacted anyone. So will Arkansas make the McGee hire and hope that whatever offensive coaching brilliance Petrino had moved via osmosis to McGee?

If West Virginia wins big in 2012 Holgorsen will be alongside Franklin as the top coaching candidates in the country. Holgorsen already put up big point totals next door in Oklahoma, would he view Arkansas as a step up over the Mountaineers?

Certainly the salary would be a major improvement.

But the Big 12 competition is much weaker.

And Holgorsen definitely has some personal demons. Can Arkansas take the risk on a guy with a less than sterling private reputation?

That seems doubtful in Petrino's wake.

USF coach Skip Holtz

He grew up in Fayetteville while his dad was head coach, but he's already shot down any interest in the Arkansas job.

Of course this is what every coach does whether they're interested in the job or not.

Either Bo Pelini hates Nebraska or he's got the most overactive agent in the world, because his name gets floated for every opening.

He's won at least nine games in four straight seasons at Nebraska.

But he has SEC bona fides.

It seems unlikely he'd leave behind a weak Big Ten for an SEC slugfest -- particularly given what he's already making at Nebraska -- but there has to be some reason his name surfaces for every coaching job, right?

Predictably, Pelini has already shot down his interest in Arkansas.

We all know that means nothing.

Want a wildly outside the box idea? Would former Arkansas player and NFL head coach Jimmy Johnson come back to college for a year? Would Sean Payton?

We'll see.

In the meantime, let me know which coaches, if any, you think I've left off this list that could be in play.

And if you're an Arkansas fan who wants some good news, Las Vegas isn't adjusting Arkansas's national championship odds at all despite Petrino's firing.